Wenger did not attend his postmatch news conference after an Arsenal representative said "the team bus had to leave quickly," but he did speak to the BBC.

“This defeat is my fault, I take full responsibility for it,” he said. “I don' t think there's too much need to talk about the mistakes we made.

"We got a good hiding today. It's how we respond now on Tuesday night [against Swansea] and the best way is not to explain too much the mistakes.

"Yes, of course it's one of the worst days [in my career]. It's over after 20 minutes and it's a long game after that. You don't prepare all week to experience that kind of experience."

Wenger went on to give his verdict on the red card that was mistakenly given to Kieran Gibbs, refusing to use that decision as an excuse for his team’s heavy defeat.

"I believe it was handball but the referee hasn't seen it,” added Wenger. “The ball went out and I think it's Chamberlain who touched the ball.

"I don't know who gave indication to the referee that it was handball but he has certainly not seen it. Of course. it's a huge disappointment today but we want to win the next game now.”

Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho, meanwhile, was in bullish mood when speaking at his postmatch news conference. “We had 10 amazing minutes and in ten minutes we win the game,” Mourinho said.

“We didn’t give any chance to our opponents and I’m so happy with the response. We came to kill and in 10 minutes, we destroy. After that, easy.

"Penalty, red card, easy, but I keep the 10 minutes when I analyse this game. In 10 minutes, 2-0 and we were too strong. It was a very good performance.

“We were very, very good. We press high and we know they want the ball at the back, to be comfortable. We press them very high immediately. In the 10 minutes we were so amazing and after Petr Cech made one important save, we were amazing.

“We have got a result with some numbers that are special for our fans. We work for the fans so this result is even more beautiful. Somebody broke our momentum at Aston Villa last weekend. Now we try to build another momentum.”

Mourinho went on to suggest technology should be brought into the game to clear up incident of mistaken identity that saw Gibbs sent off for a handball that was committed by Oxlade-Chamberlain.

“The sending off is big ammunition for the people like me who thinks one little screen in front of the fourth official is a big help against these kind of mistakes,” he added.

“The important thing is it is a penalty, there is one red card and after that it would be nice if a little screen said Chamberlain and not Gibbs.”

Mourinho concluded that his team now have a "small chance" of winning the Premier League title, but he insisted Manchester City remain strong favourites for the crown.